Limited Edition Dissected Gnome from Bigshot Toyworks X Jason Freeny

    I was reading that the other day in Iceland a road crew had to go out and unearth a boulder they accidentally covered up because it pissed off the elves and they were taking their frustrations out on anyone who got close.  Not only did they dig it back up but they also pressure washed it to restore it to its former glory.  That would never happen in America because first we would have people fighting on Facebook as to whether the elves existed or not.  Then some idiot bureaucrat would figure out how much they owed the country in back taxes and send them a bill. Congress would probably pass legislation about which bathrooms they would be allowed to use, and people would have hunted them and made elf taxidermy earrings to sell on Etsy and none of this would have really been an issue to begin with because we would have taken their elven lands and put a strip mall there a long time ago.  I think I was meant to live in Iceland.

    I love the elves and their gnome kinfolk.  And I love black metal.  And I love anatomical gross stuff.  Has Bigshot Toyworks been camping out in my mind in an effort to create the perfect hybrid toy featuring all of my interests?  If somehow they could have worked cats and cable tv in I would have straight died of shock.  Not only is this metal loving gnome dude finally becoming a reality, but Jason Freeny has hacked off a section of him to let us all see his inner self.  This is the type of brutality that anyone starting a black metal band should aspire to, as setting fires and wearing corpse paint just isn't gonna cut it after seeing this.

    Only 200 pieces of  this dude will exist in the world and they will be up for preorder very very soon and also available at New York Comic Con and Designer Con it seems.  Keep up to date by checking out www.gnome.world.

Kidrobot Announces NYCC Exclusives and Preorder Info

    Are you going to New York Comic Con?  I'm going, and my wife is going, and I hope like the last two years we ride the train into New York sitting next to the Honkey Tonk Man and the one dude from The Bushwackers.  Seriously, we pulled into Penn Station and both of them were standing behind us two years in a row.  Being an old school wrestling fan I was pretty stoked but resisted acting like a complete weirdo, except for the fact that both times I pointed and very loudly proclaimed "it's the Honky Tonk Man" in a southern accent that came out of nowhere.  I regret nothing.

    Kidrobot is also going to New York Comic Con and will have a booth there filled with exclusives.  If you're attending as well you can preorder all three of these figures so you can pick em up at the con  without having to worry that they may sell out.  I'm gonna preorder that little Scott Tolleson Cthulhu Dunny jawn for sure, and most likely the Brandt Peter's one too cause I know I'll be kicking myself if I don't.  That thing is nuts looking.

    You can read about all the rules and regulations at blog.kidrobot.com so that you ensure you don't miss out on these. And visit them during the con at booth # 502. 

Seen at NYCC: Tenacious Toys

    Every year Tenacious Toys gets together with a ton of other artists and brands, buys up a chunk of real estate in New York Comic Con, and creates Fort Kick Ass (a totally unofficial name).  On the outside it looks innocent enough, with tables full of toys and people looking to strike up conversation, but it's what's in the middle of it that you don't see that would truly blow your mind.  They have their own sanitation system, fire department, ministry of defense and electric company.  From what I hear they are currently looking for weapons grade uranium to squash threats from unruly anime gangs, but that has yet to be confirmed.  

    All that may or may not be true, as their propaganda department is very good at spinning webs of confusion, but you should check out some pictures here and on our Facebook page of tons of custom toys.  

Seen at NYCC: Super7

    You know how you make a triumphant return to New York Comic Con after a few years away?  If you're Super7 you build a massive booth, fill it with tons of exclusives, and then just wait as the huddled masses make their way up and down the aisle, unable to miss the grandeur.  There was a lot to see and a lot to buy, both of which I happily partook in.  You can check out more photos by visiting www.facebook.com/TheToyViking and you can purchase all remaining exclusives at www.super7store.com.  

Seen at NYCC: Bigshot Toyworks

    This is wasn't the first year that Bigshot Toyworks was at New York Comic Con, but it is the first time that they were not only selling their wares, but had an exclusive available.   The Hellfire Lil Maddie looked amazing in clear red and in a smaller size that the original 6 inch figure.  Their booth was filled with items from the Four Horsies of the Pocalypse line, but it was one particular prototype I was the most excited to see, as it was the first time it had been displayed in public.

    You used to have a lot of options if you were a Dalek fan and wanted to collect his figures, but it's been a number of years since anything has been released.  Well that's all about to change, as you can see from this Space Monkey prototype.  No word on a release date, but being there's an actual three dimensional representation of it, I'd have to assume we'll be seeing it sooner than later.  

     You can check out many more pictures by visiting www.facebook.com/TheToyViking. 

Seen at NYCC: KaijuMonster

   

    One of the things I enjoy most about New York Comic Con is seeing things in person that I normally only see pictures of online.  Certain toys can't be done justice unless your eye balls can gaze upon them in real life, and every year  KaijuMonster melts my retinas with some of the most killer toys from around the world.

    It was great catching up with Guumon, who has made the jump into full-time toy making and is working on tons of stuff that sounded very exciting.  Dude is living his dream and you can't help but be inspired by that.

    The resin work of DT Custom and Flawtoys were some of the best figures I saw all weekend.  Each toy looked like glass rather than any type of plastic, and I am truly a sucker for the double casting technique when it's pulled off so flawlessly.  Really impressive stuff.  If you want to see more pictures from the convention you can check out www.facebook.com/TheToyViking.  

Even More Happenings from New York Comic Con

 

    I told you yesterday about how Comic Con has the ability to scramble your brain and make you forget how to handle real life.  Well as the day progressed I started getting my wits about me and was remembering all the stuff that I totally forgot to tell you in my post yesterday.  So in the spirit of full disclosure, here are the highlights of my weekend at New York Comic Con, presented in no particular order.

-  For the second year in a row, former WWE superstars The Honky Tonk Man and Bushwhacker Luke caught the same train I was on to get into New York.  Not only that, but they were in the same car and I totally resisted yelling "hey, it's The Honky Tonk Man" in my best southern drawl.  Instead I whispered it to my wife the entire rest of the day.  We also saw Jerry The King Lawler and Hacksaw Jim Duggan, but they were in their booth's during the show so it wasn't quit as cool.

-  On the way to the convention the first day I found $40 on the sidewalk.  And on both return train trips the conductor never bothered to take our ticket, so we essentially got two free rides and still have tickets for the next time we go to New York.  I will probably be diagnosed with intestinal worms in the near future to balance that good karma out.

-  I saw a panel with Bryan freakin Cranston.  Like, I was within NFL quarterback throwing distance of one of the greatest characters in one of the greatest tv shows of all time.  This may top the time I could almost see Kevin Bacon's face without the aid of the jumbo trons at The Following panel two years ago.  I really gotta get better at being earlier to these things.

-  My wife developed a new technique where she gets in line for the bathroom before she even has to use it so by the time she makes it to the front of the line she is fully ready to utilize the facilities.  She developed this patented method after realizing she only packed one pair of jeans and the embarrassment that could ensue if she were to wait until the last minute to try and get to the restroom.  The moral of the story is that thereis always a line for the women's bathroom at this thing, and like Mt. Everest, most people will die before they ever reach the summit.  The bright side is that their corpses are great landmarks for you to judge your wait time by.

- Funko is a nefarious organization hell bent on controlling the world.  Everywhere you turned there was Funko product.  Every booth sold it, the carpet was made out of it, and I think I ate a Pop Vinyl for lunch.  What if all those toys were really mind control devices that we have willingly brought into our home, then a flip will be switched and The Greak Awakening will begin.  We will all be locked in their factories, making more toys that serve to force us into an endless loop of obedience.  We become our own enslavers in some weird, dystopian world slowly being filled more with cute action figures than real people.

-  DC Comics always has props and costumes from their films on display and it is literally one man's job to make sure the bat suit shows up.  And when he's not putting stuff on display at conventions he's just chilling in a warehouse surrounded by the coolest stuff you'll never get to play with.  I imagine it looks like that scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark where you just see miles and miles of boxes, except here there's a dude wearing Christian Bale's cod piece while pretending he's having the best Christmas morning ever.

    And that my friends, is what Comic Con means to me.  Wait, was that the original point of this?  I don't remember and it's too far to scroll back up.  You can check out all the pictures I took by visiting www.facebook.com/TheToyViking.  

The Aftermath of New York Comic Con

    If you follow me on Twitter you would have seen my comic con observations, in which I sent out my weird thoughts whenever something struck me.  I was doing that because New York Comic Con is such a sensory overload that I have to capture my ideas as I have them or risk losing them forever.  There's so much to see from the people, to the booths, to the toys I always feel like I've been lobotomized the day after.  Even last night when we got home and the cats were shunning us for daring to leave them overnight, Sharon and I just kind of melted into the couch and stared mindlessly at the tv, unable to form complete sentences.  And we were only there for two days.  I couldn't imagine the recovery time we would need if we went all four.  We would probably need to go to rehab and be taught English again.

   And not to mention the physical toll it takes on your body when you're trying to shuffle around amid 100,000 plus people.  My legs feel like they could kick down a healthy tree.  I would have thought these were just signs of me getting older, but as we ate lunch we were seated next to a father and his young son, who was maybe ten or eleven.  This was only about two hours after the doors opened and this kid looked like he was in a coma.  He just stared into the ether, mouth agape as he held his sandwich in his lap.  He could only nod in response to conversation and even his blinks looked as if they took every bit of energy he had left.  It made me feel better about myself, like death wasn't as imminent as if felt at the moment.

    But don't let this make you think we didn't enjoy ourselves, because we really did.  We bought lots of stuff, met a lot of new people, and saw lots of folks we only see once a year.  And we went to our second panel ever and saw Bryan Cranston aka Walter White from Breaking Bad, which was pretty cool.  I'll be doing more focused recaps all week and uploading photos to our Facebook page as soon as I get a chance.

My Top 10 Exclusives for This Year's New York Comic Con

    Let me tell you how prepared I am for New York Comic Con:  I went out today and got a flu shot.  I normally get one every year, and usually well before now, but there was no way I was gonna be pressed up against the sweaty, sniffling, masses without giving my immune system a chance at survival.  Plus, I'm totally out of sick days after The Great Kidney Stone of 2015 and I ain't trying to not get paid, suckas. So the only thing I have left to do is prepare my credit cards to be used and abused and to present to you my top 10 favorite exclusives I've seen for this year's convention.  

    Now this isn't one of those arbitrary lists with random numbers like Buzzfeed puts out there.  I have respect for the sanctity of the top 10 list and damn it without some sort of tradition we're just a bunch of apes rubbing sticks on the rocks to poke each other with.  I will not be poked by an uncouth monkey!  Speaking of ape-like creatures, the top dude you see there is the brand spankin new Wing Kong from Super7.  I love it.  It's a monkey, who looks pissed off, and he's got wings.  That's pretty much the total package.  Available at booth 174.  

    And speaking of horrible illness, check out this infected Dunny from Scott Wilkwoski x Kidrobot.  See, this is the type of thing that I am confident my flu shot will protect me from.  Available in purple or grey and only $60 each, you better be quick to the Clutter Magazine booth # 603 to get one.  

    If I were to ride a horse, which I'm not saying I will, I would hope that it would be a demonic hell pony with a tentacle mouth and bat wings.  Oh, what a coincidence, I happen to have one right here.  Bigshot Toyworks has these Lil Maddie figures at booth #208 just in time to rustle up your demonic cows and send them to the demonic slaughterhouse for processing into demonic burgers.  

    Is it an ice cream cone?  Is it candy corn?  Is it andy corn flavored ice cream?  Is it ice cream cosplaying as candy corn?  I don't know, but now I have a headache thinking about it.  Kozik's Monger Jerome from Rotofugi x Squibbles Ink is looking very Halloween-y in this paint job.  I need one and you do too only at booth # 603.

    Oh let me tell you how I love some marbled vinyl.  It's like the sweet patina of the plastic world.  These Cestodas from Miscreation Toys are the size of a small child without the nagging.  Mishka will have these available at booth # 110.  Bing a back brace to carry this sucker.

   I have yet to even see what the latest Shub Zeroth figure from Meta Crypt looks like, but I am so confident that it couldn't possibly suck that I'm adding it to my list.  Go pay a visit to Brian Ewing at booth # 120 for some killer art and metaphysical plastic.  

   I love snow cones, so now you can add that to the list of facts you know about me.  I hope that a snow cone never turns on me like this crazy dude from Jason Limon x Martian Toys.  Damn, this is a great figure and available at booth # 203.  

   CATS!  It's huge, it's a cat, and I need it.  Komatsu x myplasticheart have a special release of this new Daioh Negora at booth 113 and I'm gonna try and get one cause I'm that kind of pimp.  

    Another Dunny and another item I have to own.  Like, I won't die per se if I don't get one, but I wouldn't stand to close cause I may rage out.  doubleparlour killed this and it's debuting at booth # 603.

    The award for "most adorable freakin thing at comic con" goes to these Sleepytime Sea Bunnies from Peter Kato.  They are limited to 30 pieces and will be available from the Piq Products booth # 614 starting tomorrow.   

myplasticheart Exclusives for NYCC

    New York Comic Con starts tomorrow!!!!!!  I know, I can't even believe it myself.  This is how I used to feel as a kid for Christmas, and Christmas Eve always took FOREVER to get the hell out of the way.  There was nothing you could do to keep yourself occupied and not stare at the clock.  If you're going, you're going to want to check out myplasticheart's booth #113.  Here is a ton of their exclusive items they'll have waiting for you.   Commence drooling.  

More Tenacious Toys Exclusives for NYCC

    As you can see from the above picture, the Tenacious Toys booth at New York Comic Con is not just a home for exclusive collectibles; it's an entire experience.  So to better inform you about what is happening at booth #208, this is every release, signing, convention special, etc that I have yet to cover.  Better get you're scrolling finger ready cause it's gonna take you some time to reach the bottom.